Mother's response to Penny Morduant's urgent inquiry into ROGD -

[ToeToToe]

Penny Morduant has ordered an investigation into the 4000% increase in teenage girls seeking gender treatment.

A mother tweeted a response:

"My baby's caught up in that number. As parents we resisted permanent changes and medical paths and opted for no rushed decisions, therapy and to ride puberty out. #watchfulwaiting #rogd"

And, dear god, the pile on she's had from certain twitter TAs. This is the social pressure to transition - being applied to both parents and children.

Some of the replies:

"The changes your child will experience in puberty are permanent. Blockers are only there to bide time. I hope your kid survives your abuse and doesn't off themselves, they deserve better. But when they stop talking to you, you'll deserve it."

"I really hope your kid doesn’t commit suicide as a teenager. I hope they cut you out of their life and bloom into an amazing adult."

"You’re the problem here. Your kid will hate you if they don’t commit Suicide first."

"Because your bigotry about being trans is far more important than your child's wellbeing and happiness. How dare you call your child ' your baby' when you are denying their agency and true self. How about supporting, instead of controlling your child?"

This last one is what gc parents and feminists have been warning about all along, surely? - that this is a form of grooming - parents are accused of "controlling" their child, of "denying agency"?! I thought it was pretty well-established in law and safeguarding that a child does not have the maturity required to make such a decision that could have such a serious impact on the rest of their adult life.

Where has this narrative come from? Why the pressure - aggressive, threatening pressure - for instant positive affirmation of pre-pubescent/pubescent children? - social transition, puberty blockers - an almost inevitable gateway to sex hormones and surgery. A life-long dependence on drugs that we have little knowledge of the long-term affects of, and those side-effects we do know of, are not good.

Honestly, I really hope this investigation blows this stuff wide open.

twitter.com/NAutonomes/status/1041488795835793408 Whole thread here.

Stonewall's comment on the study was that only a tiny percentage of gender confused teens will transition. Where does that come from? With schools, universities, health services all rushing to affirm you before you have even spoken to a psychologist or other experienced clinician, by the time you get an appointment at the gender clinic you have evidence aplenty of your authentic gender and would meet all the diagnostic criteria. Parents and friends don't dare question you for fear of suicide and because of your fragile mental health. And you are barely out of your teens. How are you going to desist?

Lass
Maybe the mother tweeted and made it public to show the pressure and verbal abuse a non-believer gets.
You know when they don’t want to toe the party line and stuff their vulnerable child with drugs

I'm writing to penny morduant today. This situation is rampant in secondary schools and I want to tell her my personal experiences as a mum and a professional.

Transgender is now a medical rather than a mental disease, so surely all efforts should be put into developing screening to help those that need it, but protect those that flaming well don't.

I keep reading the trans activists saying the science is all on their side, so fine. Should be straightforward.

Ironic laugh

I notice, with gallows humour, that the first two bullies leaping on that woman have blue and red hair, respectively.

Maybe we need an inquiry into the contents of blue hair dye?

Momentary hijack and wrong party but don't forget John McDonnelbwebchat today at 11. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_live_events/3367889-Webchat-with-John-McDonnell-MP-Shadow-Chancellor-Tuesday-18-September-at-11am
Hijack over. Apologies.

Such an awful thread.
These are the people that are all over social media encouraging children to trans. And they are just the tone deaf foot soldiers who are encouraged and enabled by the wealthy organisations making their money from this movement. So why are they so desperate to encourage parental separation, to medicate children at an age when we don't allow children to even get a tattoo? Why are we allowing children to be targeted in this way?

On that Twitter thread, this post chilled me.
Isn't this the defination of grooming, encouraging separation from their family and into an 'online family' ?

I've been out on that thread, replying, tweeting and retweeting. Told one dickhead TRA:

You do know that the Tavistock has reported ONE suicide in TEN years? ONE? Lying about child suicide is an appalling thing to do. Predicting child suicide pushes the idea of suicide and is strongly discouraged by all expert guidelines @samaritans

Yes, that message infuriates me. The prediction is so creepy. Sounds like a triumphant cult leader telling parents their child has joined up

The gender extremists really should be shouting in to the wind on this issue. The figures about desisters and persisters speak loud and clear.

The vast majority do not persist and this needs to be at the forefront of decision making.

I will also be writing to PM with our own experiences of having a (young adult) child with ROGD.

The speed in which a medical transition can happen is frightening.

The common factors
seem to be the influence of social media, real life affirmation and encouragement from peers and influential adults (this could also be seen as a form of grooming), and a scripted response (lies) told to GPs in order to get onto the pathway for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Which is the key to hormones and surgery
On the NHS.

If parents do not go along with this then they are cut off - very easy once the child is 18, and even at 16 the child has to give permission for a parent to be involved medically.

Stealth and secrecy is encouraged at all levels - which takes away the discussions, safeguards and checks that parents can oversee.

Once the young person is a good way down the path of transitioning then it becomes a fait accompli. Names are changed, anyone who questions or has concerns is cut away and the trans community becomes the new 'siblings' and family.

All the way along it's framed as being something the child has always felt - they just didn't have the words to describe it previously.

I'm just listening to the Radio 4 interview now with the young trans person 'Colin'. The man from the Gender Identity Clinic - calling it 'assigned' female at birth 😡 - says that young people are encouraged to think about why they feel the way they do and that an increasing number are now choosing not to take hormones. I hope he's right.

I would just say to him: the young person will do whatever it takes, say whatever they need to, to get the treatment or affirmation they want. The crux of the matter is: these young people BELIEVE it, they are 100% convinced that they are in the wrong sexed body. The reasons behind their thinking are many and varied - and we should not be rushing to affirm that this means they are trans.

The only way we are going to be able to protect and safeguard our kids is to make permanent medical and surgical treatments the absolute last bastion. While providing proper support for them in the meantime.

Even as I write this I don't think this will work. I don't know what the solution is apart from trying to change society's attitude towards gender stereotypes and convincing our children that it IS okay to express your identity however you wish.

Again, the BBC only give one side of the story - and John Humphrey's attempts to expand the conversation a little bit were halfhearted to say the least.

To be fair it was difficult for him, as interviewing a young person like Colin has to be done sensitively and with care and respect. But I'd have liked to hear an alternative voice within the discussion - I won't hold my breath.

I also heard the interview with the transman on the Today programme. They have taken cross-sex hormones to the extent that they've got the changes they want, particularly a passable male-sounding voice. They said that was sufficient and didn't need to continue taking them. They were aiming next to have their double mastectomy.

In the case of that transman I was thinking that it sounded like the cosmetic aspect was paramount. If that's right then that's a very heavy price to pay to enable a transman to pass in society.

I heard the R4 piece as well - pretty much a whitewash over the whole thing. Lots of chat - as though discussing discussing a change of hair colour - and then right at the end "next is a double mastectomy" - then the end of the interview.

The Tavistock bloke just made it sound like it was all under control and fine and dandy - and completely normal for teenage girls to want to carve up healthy body tissue like this - and for this to increase 4000% in such a short time.

says that young people are encouraged to think about why they feel the way they do

Are they really? Are sexism and what porn has done to young men's sexual expectations of their female peers discussed as potential reasons why they might feel that way?

Colin said that he had taken testosterone for 6 months - and his voice had deepened sufficiently for his needs.That sounds a very short time to have that result - but what do I know...

I was cheering with Colin at this point - but then he said he was waiting for 'chest surgery.' Oh Colin - my heart goes out to you. I do hope you have supportive family and friends who love you for who you are, and not what you look like.

I also thought it was interesting that Colin said he was an art student - and that he liked people being confused by his appearance/identity.
I've heard similar things from my own child - and I think it's to do with having power and agency over one's own body.

Medical and surgical transitioning is the most personal act of 'queering' that can be done. The body becomes the ultimate canvas for their artistic expression and political identity.

Anyway, interesting though this is I don't want to de-rail the thread any further!

Not a de-rail all, I think it gets right to crux of the matter, Anchormum.

I might piss off some people here but I see it as in line with the trend for tattooing and piercing. Your body is intricately tied to your identity and needs to be modified to project your choices and ideas.

Whereas I follow what I assume is a fairly raw radfem idea of the body. We use it to achieve good things in life. Our personalities do not need to be projected permanently on our bodies. Body hair and no make up is beautiful.

To me there is nothing more beautiful than a middle aged woman with grey hair, and ruddy cheeks showing their good health etc.

@ToeToeToe

Sorry for @ing you in but can you remember the name of the person from the Tavistock who spoke?

Hi whatthewaters I couldn't, but I found it again on iplayer.

It's Professor Gary Butler.

I am going to write too. I have a young adult daughter identifying as transgender. She has autism (only just been diagnosed because she is female) which has led to a lot of mental health problems. But because she is on the waiting list for the gender clinic, none of those core problems are being addressed (beyond medication from the GP).
And very rapidly, from announcement of being trans, she has a new name, a new passport, all her NHS records are now as a person of the male sex, enrolled at uni as her new persona. She hasn't even had her first assessment at the GID clinic.

Two months before the announcement she was trans (at 18), a friend told me about a colleague's daughter who had transitioned FtM. I remember being really incredulous "Wow, that's really unusual, I wonder how someone gets to that point?" - I had not a clue that this was something we would be dropped into just a few weeks later.

Good grief @Starkstaring
I hope nothing more permanent than administrative paperwork happens before your child is mature enough to really understand.

Oh, this is horrible. If it were just some idiots on Twitter it would be bad enough, but these people are controlling official narratives.

And yet every fucking time I try to talk about my (life-ruining) experience of GnrH analogues I am completely ignored. I, and women like me, are completely invisible. Doctors don’t care. TRAs don’t care. The likely outcomes for these kids rips my heart open and these people do not fucking care.

I bet none of these people pushing these drugs has ever been on them. And I can’t imagine many who have would agree to give them to their own children.